


Words Like Bullets

by neckbeardandfedora



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Angst, Bruce Banner Needs a Hug, Drunk Tony, Established Relationship, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Kind of Suicidal, Low Points, M/M, Past Child Abuse, Self-Loathing, Tony Stark Fucks Up
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-04-09
Updated: 2018-05-04
Packaged: 2018-10-16 16:56:49
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,459
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10575561
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/neckbeardandfedora/pseuds/neckbeardandfedora
Summary: Bruce is just minding his own business when Tony's drunk ass walks in.





	1. Pulling the Trigger

**Author's Note:**

> I just wanted to write some AAAAAANGST

As the Hulk slammed his fists against his chest and roared down at the battered Tony, he felt a sudden, hard, painful impact against the back of his skull. He quickly turned in time to see the Big Hammer flying its way back to Thor’s hand. The thunder god assumed a defensive stance and held Mjölnir at the ready. He didn’t dare take his eyes off the Hulk, as much as he wanted to check on his brother in arms that lay broken on the floor.

“Come on then!” he shouted at the Hulk, throwing his hammer into the green beast’s back. 

That was definitely enough to change the Hulk’s focus.

Once Thor managed to lure the Hulk out of the laboratory and toward one of the stairwells, Natasha slinked in, immediately going to Tony’s side. She didn’t like what she saw. It looked like he had been hit by a Mack Truck. She crouched by his side and finally saw the faintest signs of breath in his shaky chest.

“Stay with me Stark,” she said as she fished out her phone. Quickly dialed and thankfully didn’t have to wait long.

“Fury,” said the voice on the other end.

“I need a medic at the Tower. Fifth R and D. Stark has massive bodily trauma and minor blood loss. He’s in and out of consciousness.”

“Is the area secure?”

“Thor has the situation under control.”

“I got a team on the way.”

After a good scare, Tony was finally stabilized. Natasha was short on answers on what caused Banner’s accident, and Fury made it her job to find out. When she arrived back at the Tower, Jarvis’ voice chimed in.

“Agent Romanov, if you wouldn’t mind informing me of Mr. Stark’s condition, I’ve been asked to pass the information along to Dr. Banner and Thor.”

“He’s in bad shape, but stable. Every rib was broken, neck sprained, major concussion. Various other breaks and tears,” she said as though she was reading off a grocery list.

“Thank you.”

“Where are Banner and Thor now?”

“Dr. Banner is resting in his bedroom. Thor is in the weight room.”

“Thank you.”

Natasha made her way to the scene of fifth R and D, stepping over the rubble and watching out for the hole in the floor caused by Thor and Banner’s altercation. She walked into the lab and looked down at the bloody dent in the floor. 

“What happened to you, Bruce…” she asked herself as she pulled out her Stark tablet. “Jarvis, can I get the security footage from Banner’s incident starting with Tony’s entrance?”

“Right away.”

Within seconds, the file was uploaded to Natasha’s tablet, and she began watching. 

First, the footage was boring enough. Just Bruce, sitting at his computer…computing. Then Tony walked in, glass of what was probably bourbon in hand. Bruce glanced over from his station and nodded.

“Hey,” he said before looking back at his screen.

“Hello to you too,” Tony said with a touch of a slur in his voice. Natasha knew how much alcohol it took for him to slur his speech. It would be impressive if it weren’t so depressing. 

Tony swaggered over to Bruce and put his hand on his shoulder.

“I’m kind of busy,” Bruce said with a little smile.

“Mm, how about we get busy together,” Tony said before bending down and kissing Bruce’s neck. So he was drunk and horny. No surprise there.

Bruce laughed gently and shrugged away. “Maybe when you’re sober.”

“Ah, come on,” Tony said with a roll of his eyes. He put his lips to Bruce’s ear and, as good as the security tech was, Natasha couldn’t make out what he said next. Whatever it was, it made Bruce go from playfully squirmy to visibly stiff and confused.

“That…okay yeah, Tony, I think you need to go lie down,” he said as he tried to shrug Tony off.

“Hey,” Tony said before muttering something else in Bruce’s ear. That was enough to make Banner get up out of his seat and look at Tony with disgust on his face. 

“How about you go sober up and then come talk to me?” Bruce said calmly.

“How about you fucking lighten up?” Tony asked before taking a sip of his drink.

Bruce pinched the bridge of his nose and shut his eyes before looking back at the other man. “Do we have a problem here?”

“Problem? I don’t have a problem. You have a problem?” Tony asked before pushing at Bruce’s chest. Bruce took a step back and put his hands up.

“You need to leave. Now,” he said sternly.

Tony closed the distance between them and muttered something else. This time, Bruce retaliated by shoving Tony back. The drunk man stumbled back a few steps. Bruce turned and started walking away.

Then Tony took a step forward, raising his hand with the glass in it up and back. 

Natasha’s stomach knotted. It was that split second of knowing something horrible was about to happen, but not being able to do anything about it.

Tony’s hand came hurdling down, the glass shattering on the back of Bruce’s head. Tony seemed to be frozen in place as Bruce began to change, turning as he did and flattening Tony to the ground in one punch. That’s when Jarvis called for assistance. He threw down another devastating blow. And another, still changing all the while. Just as he completed his transformation, Thor made it onto the scene.

Natasha had heard the footsteps approaching. She could feel the presence of someone else hovering around the doorway. Still, she had figured it would be better to finish watching the footage before acknowledging the other. And considering they didn’t interrupt her, she was guessing they wanted her to finish it.

“I haven’t lost control in almost two years,” the sad voice behind her said.

Natasha turned and looked at Bruce with genuine sympathy in her eyes, a rarity. He was freshly showered and wearing a t-shirt and sweatpants. 

“I’ve never seen him treat you like that,” she said quietly.

“He never has. I talked to Rhodey, even talked to Pepper. They said they’ve never seen or heard of him doing anything that…aggressive. I have a feeling he won’t ever do it again either.”

Natasha looked in Bruce’s eyes. She could swear she saw shreds of green, saw signs of the Hulk doing his best to lash out but being held back by untold levels of self-control.

“Don’t blame yourself for this. He was out of line.”

“I don’t, honestly.”

A silence fell between them as Natasha turned off the footage.

“We don’t have to talk about this anymore,” she said with a small nod. “I have the information I need for Fury.”

“He was saying some weird, violent sexual things,” Bruce said with a squint of his eyes. Natasha blinked a few times. She was almost caught off guard by such a blunt delivery of an obviously upsetting statement.

“I’m so sorry,” she said as a default.

“He said he wanted to…” his eyes began to lose focus, his chest heaved a sigh.

“Bruce, listen to me. Stay here with me,” Natasha said as she slowly approached him.

The next words out of Bruce’s mouth were spoken absently, as if he weren’t thinking, just remembering. “He said he wanted to fuck me so hard that I ‘cried for my mommy to make it stop.’”

Natasha knew Bruce’s file. His history. She knew what weight that statement held for him. She made up her mind quickly, figuring it was worth a shot.

When Bruce came back from wherever dark place his mind went, he saw a head of red hair pressed against his chest and felt arms gently wrapped around his waist. He realized what was happening and slowly put his arms around Natasha’s shoulders. They stood there silently for a minute, Natasha not pulling away until Bruce loosened his hold. She took a half-step back from him to give him some breathing room.

“I usually save my hugs for Steve, but I thought you could use one,” she said in an oddly comforting tone.

“I can always use one,” Bruce said with a sad smile.


	2. The Smoking Gun

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tony's alive and in pain, and Bruce goes to see him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh snap! I'm back!

When Tony began to wake up, the world was a blur of pain. He didn’t know where he was, and he wasn’t 100% on who he was. All he knew for sure was that everything hurt, and he couldn’t move very much or breathe too hard without feeling a new wave of pain. Not long after he began waking up, someone was by his side and calling for someone else. He couldn’t quite make out who it was.

And then, just as soon as he had awoken, Tony found himself drifting off back into painless darkness.

It was like that for he didn’t know how long. He would open his eyes to a blurry world, only to return to his unwanted sleep. 

Finally, as though waking from a fucking medically-induced coma, Tony opened his eyes and began to make out the room. As things came into focus, both visually and mentally, he tried to put the pieces together.

Who was he? Tony Stark. Where was he? Some sort of hospital room. What was he doing there? Judging by the various wrappings and casts, he had sustained some sort of horrendous injury and survived. 

He tried to move his neck, but that only sent a jolt of pain through his body. He winced and hissed and shut his eyes tightly as he rode out the sensation. When the pain subsided, his body relaxed as much as it could. He scanned the room with his eyes, and noted the completely not tacky or unnecessary SHIELD emblem on the wall.

Oh great. He was in mostly competent hands then.

Tony tried to reach the call button he spotted, but it hurt far too much to try and move his limbs. He cleared his throat with some difficulty and tried to call out, but he found that making a noise louder than a low whisper proved extremely painful. So he waited. And waited.

Oh boy, how he waited.

Finally, when the clock hit 10, the door opened.

Bruce was in his lab. He’d been there almost around the clock the past few weeks, and had gotten pretty good at keeping from obsessing over damage he’d caused by focusing on his work. Maybe it wasn’t fair to Tony to try and block out the memories of pummeling him into the ground, but he would drive himself up the wall if he spent all day worrying about him.

He was just finishing up entering the latest data of his blood tests when Jarvis ever-so politely turned down the opera he had playing and spoke up.

“So sorry to interrupt, Dr. Banner.”

“It’s fine, Jarvis,” Bruce said before yawning. “What’s up?”

“Agent Romanov wishes to inform you that Mr. Stark is awake and lucid enough for visitors.”

That picked Bruce right up out of his worked-induced stupor. 

When Bruce saw Tony lying there, a wave of thus far suppressed guilt washed over him. Even though intellectually he knew Tony was the one who had egged him on and smashed a damn glass on the back of his head…he still couldn’t help but feeling the way he did for landing his boyfriend in his current state.

Stepping inside slowly, Bruce spoke softly. “Hey, Tony.”

Tony had been staring at the wall, still well within his pain-killer haze. The sound of footsteps vaguely caught his attention, but the sound of Bruce’s voice made his eyes lazily look over.

“Hey there Brucey goosey,” he said with tiredness in his voice. “Have a seat…somewhere.”

Bruce looked around and saw the chair on the other side of Tony’s bed. He walked around and sat down before gently placing one hand on Tony’s…hm…he had to find something that didn’t look too banged up. Even his hands were bruised. He settled for very carefully running his fingers through Tony’s hair, a gesture that earned him a little, itty bitty smile.

“You know why I’m all…um…here?” Tony asked, bloodshot eyes on Bruce.

“Yeah. Do you?” Bruce asked in return.

“Mm no…” Tony answered. He sounded so weak. There was a slight wheeze that made Bruce wince internally. And wince a little externally.

A few moments of silence passed between them. Tony closed his eyes and sighed softly, enjoying Bruce as his fingers still stroked his hair. It felt nice. It was up there with the pain killers. 

“May I have…a kiss?” Tony asked with his eyes still closed.

Bruce smiled a little, then leaned over and planted the tiniest, gentlest kiss on Tony’s lips. The gesture made the injured man smile a little wider as Bruce sat back in his seat.

“Who did we fight?” Tony asked next. “No one tells me anything…around here.”

Bruce’s little smile faded. “Um…” How to approach this without either of them getting pissed off. “We didn’t fight anyone.”

“Was I…in a wreck? Pepper always said I drove too fast.”

“No. No wreck…can we…we should probably talk about this when you’re more lucid,” Bruce suggested.

“Mm…you’re hiding something. ‘Secrets secrets are no fun…secrets secrets hurt someone,’” Tony said quietly before yawning.

“Tell you what,” Bruce said. “We can talk all about it when you’re able to sit up, okay?” 

“Promise?” Tony asked sleepily.

“…yeah. Promise.” Bruce immediately regretted saying that, and hoped that Tony was out of it enough to forget about it. It was a conversation he never wanted to have. A conversation he wanted to hit over the head with a shovel and bury behind a shed. At the same time, Tony deserved to know the truth. And Bruce deserved some answers.

“Don’t leave until I’m asleep…please,” Tony barely managed out.

“I won’t,” Bruce said with warmth in his voice.

It wasn’t long before Tony fell asleep. Bruce didn’t leave immediately though. He leaned back in the chair and just watched Tony breathe for a few minutes, still marveling at the fact that Tony survived an encounter with the Other Guy without his armor. He’d already thanked Thor, but he’d seriously have to find a way to repay him. 

Bruce was experiencing a complex web of feelings, but at the moment the most prominent one was relief. There would be definite unpleasantness in the future, but for the time being he was glad enough that he had even that to looked forward to with Tony.

After about an hour of watching his boyfriend sleep, Bruce got up and headed back to the Tower to clear his head with science.


End file.
